I suddenly heard the voice of Ḍamḍam ibn ʿAmr al-Ghifārī shouting in the valley. He was standing on his camel—he had cut its nose, turned its saddle around, and torn his own shirt—crying out:
“O people of Quraysh, the caravan, the caravan! (1) Your goods are with Abū Sufyān and Muhammad and his Companions have fallen upon them. I doubt you will reach it in time—help, help!”
Al-ʿAbbās continued: “That alarm diverted him from me and me from him. The people began arming themselves in haste, saying, ‘Does Muhammad and his Companions imagine this will be like the caravan of Ibn al-Ḥaḍramī? By Allah, he shall find out otherwise.’
“Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah (2) mentioned ʿĀtikah’s dream in a version similar to Ibn Isḥāq’s. He said (3): When Ḍamḍam ibn ʿAmr arrived in that condition they were frightened by ʿĀtikah’s vision, so they set out on every mount, the unruly and the docile alike.
“Ibn Isḥāq said (4): Each man had only two choices—either go out himself or send a substitute. Quraysh mustered completely (5); none of its notables stayed behind, save that Abū Lahab ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib sent in his place al-ʿĀṣī ibn Hishām ibn al-Mughīrah, having hired him for four thousand dirhams he owed him after defaulting on the debt.
“Ibn Isḥāq also said (6): Ibn Abī Najīḥ related to me that Umayyah ibn Khalaf had resolved to stay at home, for he was a heavy, elderly man. ʿUqbah ibn Abī Muʿayṭ came to him while he was sitting in the Mosque among his people, carrying a censer filled with burning coals and incense (7). He set it down before him and said, ‘Abū ʿAlī, perfume yourself, for you are nothing but a woman!’ Umayyah retorted, ‘May Allah disgrace you and what you have brought!’ Yet he nonetheless prepared himself and went out with the people. Such is Ibn Isḥāq’s version of the story.
“Al-Bukhārī (8) narrated it differently:
‘Aḥmad ibn ʿUthmān told us, Shurayḥ ibn Maslamah told us, Ibrāhīm ibn Yūsuf told us, from his father, from Abū Isḥāq, who said: ʿAmr ibn Maymūn informed me that he heard ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd report from Saʿd ibn Muʿādh that he was a close friend of Umayyah ibn Khalaf. When Umayyah passed through Madinah he would stay with Saʿd, and when Saʿd passed through Mecca he would stay with Umayyah. After the Messenger of Allah ﷺ arrived in Madinah, Saʿd ibn Muʿādh travelled to perform ʿumrah and lodged with Umayyah in Mecca. He said to him, “Find me a time when the place is empty so that I may perform ṭawāf around the House.” So Umayyah led him out close to…’